The Evolution of Iron Man in TV and Film

In the popular imagination Iron Man is a lot of things: smart, smarmy, a little bit of a lecher, and a raging alcoholic. A lot of that is owed to Robert Downey Jr. But everyone’s favourite armoured scientist has come a long way since 1966.

Burger Fiction just posted an exhaustive retrospective collecting the many incarnations of Tony Stark, from the recent Marvel movies and nostalgia-laden 90s animated series (holy shit, just listen to that bitchin theme song) to some pretty old and obscure examples. What exactly is Marvel Disk Wars and why is Iron Man grunting in Japanese? Who writes these one-liners? And most of all, why is was Iron Man scorching Cap with his jet boots while hovering in a seated position? And why is Cap just posing awkwardly while he does it?

There are some questions science isn’t equipped to answer. What we can say is that Iron Man’s popularity has never been higher, and slowly but surely we’re seeing the dense, conflicted Tony Stark of the comics brought to life on screens big and small.